Cellular telephones are known in the art. Such devices were originally developed to provide mobile telephony services to users who for reasons of preference, convenience or circumstance required wireless connections to a public telephony network. The earliest cellular telephones were dedicated devices that lacked the capability to be used for other purposes.
Recent cellular telephones have more advanced operating systems that enable users to enrich and personalize their mobile telephony experience. For example, users can display or play media content such as photos, video clips, and audio files.
One of the most popular ways to personalize a mobile user's telephony experience is to select a unique audio ringtone to be played for incoming calls. The ringtone selected by the user overrides the default ringing sound selected by the telephone manufacturer.
Some cellular telephones run software that supports the definition of unique ringtones for a specific contact or for groups of contacts.
Some of these cellular telephones support user definition of a photo or video clip to display when an incoming call is received from a specific contact or group of contacts.
The media files used for these personalization services are available from a variety of sources. A small selection of files is usually pre-loaded on the devices prior to their distribution. The devices also often come equipped with cameras and audio recorders that may be used to create such media files on the devices themselves. Files may also be transferred from other devices in the user's possession via a physical connection or a short range wireless connection technology such as Bluetooth or infra-red. Some media files are also typically downloaded “over the air” across an Internet connection via the connection supplied by the mobile network operator or other media content provider.
Some cellular network operators have introduced “ringback” personalization services, which enable a mobile subscriber to define the audio clip that the network operator will play instead of the normal “ring” for someone calling the subscriber's phone number.
Ringtones and Ringback tones are available in other systems as well. SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), which may be used to connect devices for a voice over IP (VoIP) connection, also provides an option for the selection of alternative tones. The alternative tone may be indicated by a URL (universal resource locator) that may be used to download the tone at the time the connection is made. The download may be performed using a different channel than the VoIP connection.
“Endtone” personalization services may soon be offered by network operators. Endtones may include specialized disconnect tones to notify wireless device users that voice and data connections are terminated. Endtones have been announced by Endtone of the United States.
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